Cinderella Girl

Three-year-old Hanna wakes up to find she has been abandoned. Her family is gone. The house is locked. She is trapped. Meanwhile, a teenage girl has been found murdered aboard the Cinderella, a cruise ship which sails between Sweden and Finland. Detective Chief Inspector Conny Sjoberg visits the girl's home to deliver the tragic news. But as he investigates, it becomes chillingly clear that the girl's younger sister will meet a similar fate - unless the police can crack the case and trap this elusive and vicious killer.

Mercy: Department Q, Book 1

The unabridged, digital audiobook edition of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Mercy, Scandinavia’s new bestselling crime phenomenon. Read by the actor Steven Pacey. At first the prisoner scratches at the walls until her fingers bleed. But there is no escaping the room. With no way of measuring time, her days, weeks, months go unrecorded. She vows not to go mad. She will not give her captors the satisfaction.

The Bat: The First Inspector Harry Hole Novel

Before Harry took on the neo-Nazi gangs of Oslo, before he met Rakel, before The Snowman tried to take everything he held dear, he went to Australia. Harry Hole is sent to Sydney to investigate the murder of Inger Holter, a young Norwegian girl who was working in a bar. Initially sidelined as an outsider, Harry becomes central to the Australian police investigation when they start to notice a number of unsolved rape and murder cases around the country. The victims were usually young blondes. Inger had a number of admirers, each with his own share of secrets, but there is no obvious suspect.

I'm Travelling Alone: Holger Munch & Mia Kruger, Book 1

When a six-year-old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck. It reads, 'I'm travelling alone'. Holger Munch, veteran police investigator, is immediately charged with reassembling his homicide unit. But to complete the team, he must convince his erstwhile partner, Mia Krüger - a brilliant but troubled investigator - to return from the solitary island where she has retreated with plans to take her own life.

The Academy: A Short Story

Quitting her job as a high school science teacher to join the Seattle Police Department was an easy decision for Tracy Crosswhite. Years earlier, what should have been one of the happiest days of her life instead became her worst nightmare when her younger sister, Sarah, disappeared. After the murder trial, while her family disintegrated, Tracy turned her heartbreak and her lingering questions into a passion for justice.

Still Life: Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 1

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Magpie Murders: A Novel

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the best-selling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan's traditional formula has proved hugely successful.

Crime on the Fens: DI Nikki Galena, Book 1

DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she's seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She's gotten tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she's been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she's out.

The Lying Game: A Novel

On a cool June morning, Isa Wilde, a resident of the seemingly idyllic coastal village of Salten, is walking her dog along a tidal estuary. Before she can stop him, Isa's dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick - and to her horror, Isa discovers it's not a stick at all...but a human bone. As her three best friends from childhood converge in Salten to comfort a seriously shaken-up Isa, terrifying discoveries are made, and their collective history slowly unravels.

Meet Me in Malmo: Inspector Anita Sundstrom, Book 1

A British journalist is invited to Malmö to interview an old university friend who is now one of Sweden's leading film directors. When he discovers the director's glamorous film-star wife dead in her apartment, the Skåne County Police are called in to solve the high-profile case.

Silent Scream: Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller, Book 1

Five figures gather 'round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult-sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken, but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood. Years later a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders that shock the Black Country.

When It Grows Dark

Stavern, 1983. After a brutal robbery, a young policeman named William Wisting is edged off the investigation by more experienced officers, but soon he is on another case that has not even been recognised as murder. Forgotten in a dilapidated barn stands a bullet-riddled old car, and it looks as if the driver did not get out alive. This case will shape William Wisting as a policeman and give him insight that he will carry with him for the rest of his career.

Dead Certain: A Novel

Ella Broden is living a double life. By day, Ella works as a buttoned-up attorney on some of the city's most grueling cases. By night, she pursues her passion for singing in the darkest clubs of Manhattan. No one knows her secret, not even Charlotte, the younger sister she practically raised. But it seems she's not the only one in the family with something to hide. When Charlotte announces she's sold her first novel, Ella couldn't be more thrilled...until she gets a call that her sister's gone missing.

The Girl in the Ice: Detective Erika Foster Crime Thriller, Book 1

When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation. The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound, and dumped in water around London.

Red Ribbons: Dr. Kate Pearson, Book 1

A missing schoolgirl is found buried in the Dublin Mountains, hands clasped together in prayer, two red ribbons in her hair. Twenty-four hours later, a second schoolgirl is found in a shallow grave - her body identically arranged. The hunt for the killer is on. The police call in criminal psychologist Kate Pearson to get inside the mind of the murderer before he strikes again. But the more Kate discovers about the killings, the more it all feels terrifyingly familiar.

Only the Innocent

When billionaire philanthropist Sir Hugo Fletcher is discovered murdered in his London home, tied naked to a bed, the scandal is only a shadow of the darkness lurking off-camera. Laura Fletcher returns from an Italian vacation to find her home under siege by paparazzi. Is she shocked? Yes. But is she distraught? Not exactly. Chief Inspector Tom Douglas reveals his suspicions that Hugo’s killer is female. The deeper Douglas digs, the more sordid details he uncovers.

A Tapping at My Door

From the best-selling author of Cry Baby, the beginning of a brilliant and gripping police procedural series set in Liverpool, perfect for fans of Peter James and Mark Billingham. A woman at home in Liverpool is disturbed by a persistent tapping at her back door. She's disturbed to discover the culprit is a raven and tries to shoo it away. Which is when the killer strikes. DS Nathan Cody, still bearing the scars of an undercover mission that went horrifyingly wrong, is put on the case.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder - and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, truculent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.

The Cold, Cold Ground: Detective Sean Duffy, Book 1

Adrian McKinty was born in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. He studied politics and philosophy at Oxford before moving to America in the early 1990s. Living first in Harlem, he found employment as a construction worker, barman, and bookstore clerk. In 2000 he moved to Denver to become a high school English teacher and it was there that he began writing fiction.

The Missing Ones: Detective Lottie Parker, Book 1

When a woman's body is discovered in a cathedral and hours later a young man is found hanging from a tree outside his home, Detective Lottie Parker is called in to lead the investigation. Both bodies have the same distinctive tattoo clumsily inscribed on their legs. It's clear the pair are connected, but how? The trail leads Lottie to St Angela's, a former children's home, with a dark connection to her own family history. Suddenly the case just got personal.

The Last Lullaby

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Last Lullaby by Carin Gerhardsen, read by Candida Gubbins. Inspector Conny Sjöberg and his police colleagues are perplexed by the brutal killing of a family in their Stockholm apartment. With no clues, the murder inquiry starts with working out how it was possible for the mother, who worked as a cleaner, to afford a multimillion-dollar property.

The Bone Collector: The First Lincoln Rhyme Novel

In his most gripping thriller yet, Jeffery Deaver takes listeners on a terrifying ride into two ingenious minds...that of a physically challenged detective and the scheming killer he must stop. The detective was the former head of forensics at the NYPD, but is now a quadriplegic who can only exercise his mind. The killer is a man whose obsession with old New York helps him choose his next victim. Now, with the help of a beautiful young cop, this diabolical killer must be stopped before he can kill again!

My Husband's Wife: A Novel

For fans of Big Little Lies and The Couple Next Door comes an addictive psychological thriller that's already an international sensation. When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she's determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe. A convicted murderer whom Lily is strangely drawn to. For whom she will soon be willing to risk almost anything.

Some Danger Involved: Barker & Llewelyn Series, Book 1

An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London's Jewish ghetto. When the eccentric and enigmatic Barker takes the case, he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with "some danger involved", he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past.

Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents The Gingerbread House by Carin Gerhardsen, a sensational new crime-writing talent from the same Swedish editorial team and publisher as Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. Read by the actress Candida Gubbins.

Ingrid Olsson returns home from a Stockholm hospital to discover a man in her kitchen. She's never seen the intruder before. But he's no threat - he's dead. Criminal Investigator Conny Sjoberg takes the call, abandoning his wife Asa and their five children for the night. His team identify the body as that of a middle-aged family man. But why was he there? And who bludgeoned him to death?

Lacking suspect and motive, Sjoberg's team struggle until they link the case to another - apparently random - killing. And discover they face a serial killer on a terrible vendetta.... The Gingerbread House is the first title in The Hammarby Series, novels following Detective Inspector Conny Sjoberg and his murder investigation team - a gripping feast for all fans of Jo Nesbo, Camilla Lackberg, and Henning Mankell.

Carin Gerhardsen was born in 1962 in Katrineholm, Sweden. Originally a mathematician, she enjoyed a successful career as an IT consultant before turning her hand to writing crime fiction. Carin now lives in Stockholm with her husband and their two children. She is currently working on the seventh title in the series.

What the Critics Say

"Carin Gerhardsen writes so vividly, like she is painting with words, gripping your heart and soul in an ever-tightening tourniquet" (Peter James)"Gerhardsen brings a timely perspective to the serial killer genre, as her characters are engulfed by the worst possible consequences of their childhood cruelties. The pages turn themselves, right up the final startling twist" (John Verdon)

I pre-ordered this book and started listening the day it arrived. I enjoy discovering a new Scandinavian author that has a clever story idea and lots of talent. The reviews looked good so I was expecting something on the level of Jussi Adler-Olsen or Camilla Lackberg.

The narration was unsettling to me from the start. Gubbins seems like a very capable narrator, but her voice and accent was annoying to me. I actually considered buying the Kindle version to get through the story. Despite the narration, I never got hooked into the story. Even though I knew before the book started that the serial killer would be revealed to the reader, I thought the police procedural would be interesting on how they would catch him. That never happened for me. I finally gave up after the 4th hour.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Gingerbread House to be better than the print version?

Yes I loved listening to this book

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes -had know idea who the killer was until almost the end- was well written and the narrator was excellent- loved it

Which character – as performed by Candida Gubbins – was your favorite?

Connie and Petra

Any additional comments?

I really loved these books and so I am very disappointed that the other books written by this author are narrated in Swedish and I wish they in were in English as I don't speak Swedish so I'm hoping they will be narrated in English in the near future PLEASE and thank you

There are consequences for actions and the fact that there seems to be no statute of limitations for revenge makes a person wonder if, in fact, we will eventually pay for the mistakes we made as wee children. Mistakes that most of us will never remember since our actions at 5 or 6 years old are often lost to the dull mist of memory. Hmmm.. this could be a scary thought.Candida Gubbins narrated this story well.

No spoilers here!This book is every bit a Scandinavian murder mystery with multiple story threads. The main plot has roots far in the past, murders in the present, and a rush to prevent future killings. However, there is not one gruff loner detective doing things regardless of the consequences. The team works together, divides the responsibilities, and we get a glimpse of them off work. Early in the book I was drawn in to the background, realization that the murders are work of a serial killer, and the rush to stop the carnage. I will definitely follow this author in the future.

I didn't sync with the narrator immediately, but it only took a short time to get into her rhythm and enjoy "someone reading to me."

Well written, captivating story with twists and turns leading to an unexpected ending. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Kaggy

United Kingdom

1/10/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Low on tension but great police characters"

This is an interesting story that invites you to have some compassion for the killer. This works to a degree but the downside in that the plot lacks tension because it is hard to feel a great deal of sympathy with the victims. Naturally they don't deserve to die in such a heinous way but they really are a pretty unpleasant bunch.

The best parts of the book are driven by the various police officers in the case. Each one is an interesting character in their own right, and there is a very good sub plot, plus a clever twist at the end. I am not certain, but this appears to be part of a series, and I would be tempted to carry on reading to find out more about this team.

The narrator does a good job involving multiple accents and characters.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

P. S. Elliott

Cheltenham, UK

10/21/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Gingerbread house"

Great story, thriller that keeps you guessing. Narrator good too. This is a new author I will definitely be following.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Susan

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

6/7/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"A sad but unfortunately true tale"

Which character – as performed by Candida Gubbins – was your favourite?

Thomas was such a sad human being, without ever really experiencing love, joy or laughter in his life, nor the feeling of security.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The prologue brought me too tears, I found it exceptionally moving and fatefully truthful even as today our children suffer through this form of abuse

Any additional comments?

This is the first book of Carin Gerhardson's that I have read, found it to be well written, with plenty emotion strewn throughout.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

kiersten

2/6/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"An enjoyable book"

This is the second book I've read in this series and enjoyed. The plot lines are not complicated and the twist at the end is a bit predictable. The narrator's accent is dodgy at times and there is an unfinished storyline - hopefully there is a further book to explore it more. Overall I would recommend for some light 'reading'.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Mrs. S. Duffy

London, UK

1/22/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Possibly ok story marred by poor narration"

I don't think the plot is more than average but I think I would have enjoyed this more with a better narration. The reader's use of poorly deployed, bizarre UK regional accents (it's a translation of a Swedish novel) were very off-putting. The vocal characterisations were generally poor and distracting.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Lynsey Saunders

10/23/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Predictable but enjoyable"

I enjoyed this book but guessed very early on what the outcome would be. That's not to say it wasn't well-woven or enjoyable just much more predictable by comparison than other similar crime writers. Overall a decent story that really connects you to the characters emotionally.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

MRS

9/19/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Lost in the middle"

Started off great....lost it a bit in the middle!!? Then bang nice little twist at the end

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

science boff

England

4/12/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"The Gingerbread House"

A good story. A good plot that made you not want to stop listening. I would recommend this book to add to your wish list.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

M

POTTON SANDY, United Kingdom

4/11/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Run as fast as you can."

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The reading would have had more resonance had it been read by a male

What will your next listen be?

Not sure. Rebus perhaps

Would you be willing to try another one of Candida Gubbins’s performances?

No

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

The book was read with emphasis all wrong in many places.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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